The term "poetess" was common during the Victorian period. While it was originally used simply to describe a poet who happened to be female, "poetess" soon grew to refer to a specific genre of poetry that was written predominantly by women but later grew to become a derogatory term. The term was often used interchangeably with "women poet", however "poetess" was the preferred term (Brown 180). In addition, it denoted the gushing, effusive, hyper-lyrical, and usually patriotic poetry that was often found in gift books and annuals of the time such as The Forget-Me-Not and The Keepsake. Prominent poetesses of the period were Felicia Hemans and Letitia Elizabeth Landon ("L.E.L").
The tradition of the poetess was influenced by earlier writers. Notably, Sappho was considered an important precursor to the Poetess style. Her poetry is described by Clulow in The Crayon as "the expression of interior life" (Clulow 38). This use of poetry as a means to release the emotions pent up throughout the poet’s life is central to the idea of the Poetess. A more contemporary model for the poetess was found in Germaine de Stael's Corinne, a French novel about a fictional and successful, but unhappy, female poet. Angela Leighton points out that Felicia Hemans' characters of "Sapphos and Corinnes give later women poets a place, as it were, from where to start, even if it is to start to walk away" (Leighton 41). Hemans' affinity for Corinne is evidenced in her poem "Corinne at the Capitol": "Crowned of Rome! - oh! art thou not Happy in that glorious lot? - Happier, happier far than thou With the laurel on thy brow, She that makes the humblest hearth Lovely but to one on earth!" (Hemans 313)
As this passage indicates, poets such as Hemans admired the women poets of old who were unhappy despite their success in poetry. But the female poetess tradition does leave a few questions to still be answered. Why did female poets write in this specialized poetess style at all? Why not just write in the same style and traditions as their male counterparts? Francis O'Gorman addresses this issue in his review of a collection of essays edited by Isobel Armstrong, in which he suggests that the majority of women were "excluded from the Great Tradition of male writers" (O'Gorman 546). As Armstrong notes, female poets were not seen as being on the same level as male poets since to do so would entail "treating gender as genre" (15). This would then allow female poets to have a well-established place in the Victorian tradition, something the sexist attitudes of the time would not allow. This sexism then led women to self-consciously develop their own style of poetry. It should, therefore, be no surprise that female poets in the Victorian era would turn to the poetry of Sappho or Corinne as precursors.
Aside from the gushing emotional lyric poetry associated with Sappho, the Poetess style is arguably inherently political. Anne K. Mellor argues that "the literary tradition of the female poet is explicitly political; it self-consciously and insistently occupies the public sphere." (Mellor 262) One example of this politically charged poetry is seen in L.E.L's "Improvisatrice", where the speaker's power is described as "but a woman's power" (Landon 6). While it might seem as if she is demeaning her power by saying it is "but" a woman's power, this line still acknowledges that women have power, which would be a bold political statement to make during the Victorian era. Mellor also theorizes that this political aspect of Poetess poetry "originates in the writings of the female preachers or prophets who embraced seventeenth-century Quaker theology" (Mellor 262). This political consciousness that the Poetess embodied apparently also had its roots in the masculine church tradition. This consciousness of the public political arena, which was expressed in a very patriotic fashion, coupled with the inherent emotion in Poetess poetry, produces a distinctive poetess style.
The term "poetess" soon became derogatory. Virginia Blain explains the change of connotation: "[a]mong those who resisted what they perceived as the female take-over of the male domain, 'poetess' naturally enjoyed derogatory usage, picking up overtones, perhaps, from 'poesy' in the trite or lightweight sense of that word" (Blain 32). The term was also derogatory because of its "insistence that masculinity and femininity mattered where poetry was concerned" (Brown 180). Essentially, poetess poetry was viewed as a less serious poetic endeavour than the more "traditional" male poetry. Due to this sexist view, the dismissive connotation of "poetess" soon caught on and the genre soon withered and died out. Blain further points out that Felicia Hemans regretted not composing "a work which might permanently take its place as the work of a British poetess" (Blain 32). Even if Hemans did take her place as the quintessential British poetess, the negative connotation of the term would have soon sullied her reputation. It soon became synonymous with unimportant poetry, and, therefore, did not allow female poets to become widely known as a British poetess without that negative connotation attached to their work. Unlike female terms in other forms of art, such as the term "actress", the Poetess soon died as a style due to the overwhelming sexism displayed by their male counterparts. Had this style of poetry received more respect, it may have forever changed the male/female dynamic in the Victorian poetry scene. AM/Engl386/Fall2012/UVic
Works Cited Armstong, Isobel. "The Victorian Poetry Party." Victorian Poetry 42.1 (2004): 9-27. Web. 29 Nov. 2012.
Blain Virginia. "Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Eliza Mary Hamilton, and the Genealogy of the Victorian Poetess." Victorian Poetry 33.1 (1995): 31-51. Web. 23 Oct. 2012
Bristow, Joseph, and Susan Brown. The Cambridge Companion to Victorian Poetry. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge UP, 2000. Print.
Clulow. "Sappho, the Greek Poetess." The Crayon 6.2 (1859): 37-39. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.
Hemans, Felicia. Poems. London: William Blackwood And Sons, 1868. Print.
Landon, Letitia Elizabeth. The Improvisatrice; and Other Poems. Boston: Munroe and Francis, 1825. Print.
Leighton, Angela. Victorian Women Poets. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1992. Print.
Mellor, Anne K. "The Female Poet and the Poetess: Two Traditions of British Women's Poetry, 1780-1830." Studies in Romanticism 36.2 (1997): 261-276. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.
O'Gorman, Francis. Review of "Women's Poetry, Late Romantic to Late Victorian: Gender and Genre, 1830-1900, ed. by Isobel Armstrong and Virginia Blain." The Review of English Studies 50.200 (1999): 546-547. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.
The tradition of the poetess was influenced by earlier writers. Notably, Sappho was considered an important precursor to the Poetess style. Her poetry is described by Clulow in The Crayon as "the expression of interior life" (Clulow 38). This use of poetry as a means to release the emotions pent up throughout the poet’s life is central to the idea of the Poetess. A more contemporary model for the poetess was found in Germaine de Stael's Corinne, a French novel about a fictional and successful, but unhappy, female poet. Angela Leighton points out that Felicia Hemans' characters of "Sapphos and Corinnes give later women poets a place, as it were, from where to start, even if it is to start to walk away" (Leighton 41). Hemans' affinity for Corinne is evidenced in her poem "Corinne at the Capitol":
"Crowned of Rome! - oh! art thou not
Happy in that glorious lot? -
Happier, happier far than thou
With the laurel on thy brow,
She that makes the humblest hearth
Lovely but to one on earth!" (Hemans 313)
As this passage indicates, poets such as Hemans admired the women poets of old who were unhappy despite their success in poetry. But the female poetess tradition does leave a few questions to still be answered.
Why did female poets write in this specialized poetess style at all? Why not just write in the same style and traditions as their male counterparts? Francis O'Gorman addresses this issue in his review of a collection of essays edited by Isobel Armstrong, in which he suggests that the majority of women were "excluded from the Great Tradition of male writers" (O'Gorman 546). As Armstrong notes, female poets were not seen as being on the same level as male poets since to do so would entail "treating gender as genre" (15). This would then allow female poets to have a well-established place in the Victorian tradition, something the sexist attitudes of the time would not allow. This sexism then led women to self-consciously develop their own style of poetry. It should, therefore, be no surprise that female poets in the Victorian era would turn to the poetry of Sappho or Corinne as precursors.
Aside from the gushing emotional lyric poetry associated with Sappho, the Poetess style is arguably inherently political. Anne K. Mellor argues that "the literary tradition of the female poet is explicitly political; it self-consciously and insistently occupies the public sphere." (Mellor 262) One example of this politically charged poetry is seen in L.E.L's "Improvisatrice", where the speaker's power is described as "but a woman's power" (Landon 6). While it might seem as if she is demeaning her power by saying it is "but" a woman's power, this line still acknowledges that women have power, which would be a bold political statement to make during the Victorian era. Mellor also theorizes that this political aspect of Poetess poetry "originates in the writings of the female preachers or prophets who embraced seventeenth-century Quaker theology" (Mellor 262). This political consciousness that the Poetess embodied apparently also had its roots in the masculine church tradition. This consciousness of the public political arena, which was expressed in a very patriotic fashion, coupled with the inherent emotion in Poetess poetry, produces a distinctive poetess style.
The term "poetess" soon became derogatory. Virginia Blain explains the change of connotation: "[a]mong those who resisted what they perceived as the female take-over of the male domain, 'poetess' naturally enjoyed derogatory usage, picking up overtones, perhaps, from 'poesy' in the trite or lightweight sense of that word" (Blain 32). The term was also derogatory because of its "insistence that masculinity and femininity mattered where poetry was concerned" (Brown 180). Essentially, poetess poetry was viewed as a less serious poetic endeavour than the more "traditional" male poetry. Due to this sexist view, the dismissive connotation of "poetess" soon caught on and the genre soon withered and died out. Blain further points out that Felicia Hemans regretted not composing "a work which might permanently take its place as the work of a British poetess" (Blain 32). Even if Hemans did take her place as the quintessential British poetess, the negative connotation of the term would have soon sullied her reputation. It soon became synonymous with unimportant poetry, and, therefore, did not allow female poets to become widely known as a British poetess without that negative connotation attached to their work. Unlike female terms in other forms of art, such as the term "actress", the Poetess soon died as a style due to the overwhelming sexism displayed by their male counterparts. Had this style of poetry received more respect, it may have forever changed the male/female dynamic in the Victorian poetry scene.
AM/Engl386/Fall2012/UVic
Works Cited
Armstong, Isobel. "The Victorian Poetry Party." Victorian Poetry 42.1 (2004): 9-27. Web. 29 Nov. 2012.
Blain Virginia. "Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Eliza Mary Hamilton, and the Genealogy of the Victorian Poetess." Victorian Poetry 33.1 (1995): 31-51. Web. 23 Oct. 2012
Bristow, Joseph, and Susan Brown. The Cambridge Companion to Victorian Poetry. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge UP, 2000. Print.
Clulow. "Sappho, the Greek Poetess." The Crayon 6.2 (1859): 37-39. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.
Hemans, Felicia. Poems. London: William Blackwood And Sons, 1868. Print.
Landon, Letitia Elizabeth. The Improvisatrice; and Other Poems. Boston: Munroe and Francis, 1825. Print.
Leighton, Angela. Victorian Women Poets. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1992. Print.
Mellor, Anne K. "The Female Poet and the Poetess: Two Traditions of British Women's Poetry, 1780-1830." Studies in Romanticism 36.2 (1997): 261-276. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.
O'Gorman, Francis. Review of "Women's Poetry, Late Romantic to Late Victorian: Gender and Genre, 1830-1900, ed. by Isobel Armstrong and Virginia Blain." The Review of English Studies 50.200 (1999): 546-547. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.